The next Metal Gear Solid game is considered a prologue to Metal Gear Solid 5, director Hideo Kojima said today at a PAX presentation.

He also showed off some stunning gameplay footage from the upcoming open-world game. Snake is back: and he actually looks younger than he did in Metal Gear Solid 4. The original Snake, also known as Big Boss, is back: and he's the star this time, like he was in Metal Gear Solid 3 and several other games in the series. He can use a helicopter to fly around the world, going between countries and taking on missions.

We're also introduced to a suited figure that appears to be one of the game's villains. The character wears a black, flat-brimmed hat, his face burnt and disfigured. He appears to be part of a group called XOF—FOX backwards—and he calls his squad of soldiers "an army without a nation."

The footage runs on Kojima's impressive Fox Engine, which the director says could be used for other Konami games like Silent Hill in the future. It's current-gen: PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. It can also scale for next-gen platforms.

We'll have the full fifteen minutes of gameplay footage on Kotaku shortly.